Thill-support.



E. P. HOFFMAN.

THILL SUPPORT. APPLICATION TILED NOV. 12, 1912.

1,1 18,859. 1 Patented Nov. 24, 1914 lill 1 N m! k7? 1'1 5 fi 11 15 65 66 16 1 10 a gmvemlio'p ni vrrnn sra'rns ra'rnn'r onrion.

EDWARD F. HOFFMAN, OF GLANJDORF, OHIO.

THILL-SUIPP ORT.

Application filed November 12, 1912.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD F. Horn- MAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Glandorf, in the county of Putnam and State of Ohio, have invented new and useful Improvements in Thill-Supports, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to thill supports and has for an object to provide a device for supporting the thills of a vehicle or carriage in raised or inoperative position.

The invention embodies, among other features, a bracket adjustable on the body of the vehicle and adapted to be releasably engaged by a hook-like supporting member movably mounted on the cross piece of the thills and which, when in engagement with the bracket, will support the thills in raised position.

In the further disclosure of the invention reference is to behad tothe accompanying drawings, constituting a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference denote corresponding parts in all the views, and in which:

Figure .1 is a fragmentary perspective view of the device, the hook like supporting member being shown in supporting position in full lines and in non-supporting position in dotted lines; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the bracket; Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken on the line 3-3 in Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken through the hook like supporting member and showing the spring for normally retaining the supportingmember in initial position.

Referring more particularly to the views, I disclose a vehicle body 10 provided with a dash board 11 and swingingly supporting the usual thills 12 comprising shafts 13 connected by a cross piece 14-.

A bracket 15 is adjustably mounted on the vehicle body 10 and consists of a plate 16 preferably stamped from a single piece of material and provided with a concave upper edge 17 adapted to normally repose upon the upper edge of a side of the vehicle body 10, an upright 18 being arranged to extend upwardly from one end of the edge 17 and adjacent the dash board 11, as shown, the plate 16 having a portion thereof bent to form a channel 19, through which loosely extends a pin 20 provided with a lateral apertured flange 21 at the lower end thereof for securing the pin rigidly Within the ve- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 24, 1914.

Serial No. 730,931.

hiclc body 10, a set screw 22 being arranged for threaded connection with the channel 19 and having the inner end thereof adapted to engage the pin .20, thus permitting of adjusting the bracket 15 vertically on the vehicle body 10, as will be readily understood by referring to Figs. 2 and A collar 23 encircles the cross piece 14; and is rigid therewith, the said collar being secured to the cross piece in any suitable manner. Mounted to swing on the collar is a hook like supporting member 21 provided with a handle 25, the said supporting member being normally retained in non-supporting position or in a horizontal position relatively to the cross piece 14;, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, by a hat spring 26 secured to the collar 23 and having a portion thereof operable in a groove 27 formed in the under side of the supporting member 24,-, the free end of the supporting member being bent to provide a lug 28 so that when the thills 12 are raised upwardly, the supporting member can be swung into engagement with the up right 18 of the bracket 15, as shown, the sup porting member being adapted to extend around the upright so that the lug 28 engaging an edge of the upright will prevent the spring 26 from turning the supporting momber 24 to non-supporting position, it being readily seen that at the moment the supporting member is moved into supporting position, the thills are released so that the weight thereof, together with the hi 28, will retain the supporting member in rigid engagement with the upright 18. .Vhen it is desired to lower the thills 12, the thills are first raised upwardly beyond their normal supporting position in order to disengage the lug 28 from the upright 18, thus permitting the spring 26 to act and swing the supporting member 2a into non-support ing position, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, after which the thills are lowered to the ground.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that the bracket 15, including the upright 18, can be conveniently adjusted on the vehicle body 10 and it will be further seen that the bracket, lying along the inner face of one of the sides of the vehicle body, will take u very little room and will not interfere with the driver when the vehicle is in use. Thus there is provided a device of a simple construction which can be easily applied to various kinds of vehicles and which will prevent mutilation of a highly finished or ornamented dashboard by having the hook like supporting member carried on the cross bar of the thills engaging the bar which extends upwardly adjacent the inner face of the dashboard. It will be understood that the bracket 15 need only be raised so that the bar 18 can be engaged by the hook like supporting member, if the bar is not sufliciently long to be normally engaged by the hook like supporting member upon raising the thills, when the vehicle is in the barn or stable and not in use, for the reason that it is only necessary to use a thill supporting device to hold the thills in raised position when the horse has been removed from the thills and the vehicle is not in use. When it is desired to hitch the horse to the thills after the thills have been lowered by disengaging the hook like supporting member from the bar 18, the plate can be re turned to normal position as shown in 1 and 2 by simply loosening the screw 22, thus permitting the plate to slide from a raised position to its lower and normal position as shown and in which, when the plate is in the said normal position as shown, the projecting edge 1701 the plate or bracket, engaging an edge of the side of the vehicle body, will hold the bracket against any rattling as the vehicle proceeds over the highway.

It will be understood, of course, that I do not limit myself to the particular disclosure in the view; that the thill supporting device may be applied to all kinds of vehicles and that the thill supporting device is preferably mad small and compact so that it will not interfere with the entrance of passengers to the vehicle or in any way interfere with the driver when the vehicle is in use, while at the same time the device will ethciently perform the functions for which it is designed.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a thill support, a vehicle body having thills movable thereon, a bracket adjustably mounted on the vehicle body, the said bracket comprising a plate, an upright projecting from an end of the plate adjacent the dash board of the vehicle body, a pin slidably supporting the plate, means for securing the plate ri idly relatively to the pin, a supporting member mounted to swing on the cross piece of the thills and movable into engagement with the said upright to secure the said thills in supporting position relatively to the vehicle body, a spring engaging the said supporting member for normally retaining the same in non-supporting position, and a lug formed with the supporting member and adapted to extend around one edge of the said upright to retain the supporting member in supporting position against the action of the said spring.

2. In a thill support, a vehicle body having thills thereon, a plate adjustably mounted on the vehicle body, an upright projecting from one end of the plate and adjacent the dash board of the vehicle body, the said upright being movable with the said plate, a collar encircling the cross piece of the thills, a supporting member mounted to swing thereon and adapted to engage thesaid up right to retain the thills in supporting position on the vehicle body, and a spring supported on the said collar and engaging the said supporting member to normally retain the same in non-supporting position on the cross piece of the thills.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD F. HOFFMAN.

Witnesses L. F. HOFFMAN, A. HOFFMAN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of "Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

